FeuilladeTravel: Airline review: British Airways A319 economy class, Stockholm to London

Sightseeing in London - my review of British Airways A319 economy class, Stockholm (ARN) to London (LHR)
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01. Trip report introduction
02. British Airways A319 economy class, Stockholm to London
03. British Airways Galleries Club Lounge, Heathrow Terminal 5
04. British Airways B767 business class, London to Stockholm
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Stockholm (ARN) to London (LHR)

Date: 2018-10-13
Flight number: BA771
Aircraft: Airbus A319
Registration: G-EUOF
Age of aircraft: 17 years
Duration of flight: 2:38 (gate to gate)
Seat: 19F

Boarding a new airline is always exciting, even if it's in economy class, in an aircraft you've flown on several occasions, and on a route that you flew only a week ago. I arrived at Terminal 2, and noticed that this terminal had a second floor. I hadn't noticed that before, but I guess it made perfect sense. The London flights require passport controls, and I hadn't seen any booths for that either here at Terminal 2. So I headed upstairs and passed through the passport control. After that, there wasn't anything to do but wait, really. And the views were worse from the second floor too.

We meet again, T2!

Departures from T2 this morning

British Airways used zone boarding, and they actually followed it very well. What surprised me even more was that most passengers followed it as well. Boarding was called roughly 35 minutes prior to scheduled time of departure.

Here she is!

First look at the cabin

Seat 19F - mine for this hop to the UK

Not too generous seat pitch, but decent enough for a short haul

Seat pocket located above the tray table

Empty middle seat!

I liked the black seats, and the fact that the headrests were adjustable and "foldable". Boarding was completed fairly quickly, and the middle seat stayed empty. Perfect! There seemed to be a few empty seats here and there, so the load factor might have been something like 80-90 % on this flight.

As we were waiting for pushback the captain informed us that ATC at Heathrow had issued a slot delay due to strong winds in London. Always something at Heathrow, huh? This time we didn't have to wait too long, though, and we pushed back only 15 minutes delayed. Taxiing was slow at ARN this morning though, so it took another 15 minutes to take off. I actually slept for half an hour between boarding and take-off, which also tells something about the cabin temperature. I usually find it way too hot on aircraft while they're still on the ground, so thank you BA for keeping the cabin kind of cool!

It had been a rainy morning, but now the sun is rising, and the clouds are dissolving

Sir Michael Caine informing us about the safety onboard

Sun is up!

Waiting patiently as we slowly make our way to runway 19R

At the runway...

Engines powering up - soon those raindrops will be gone!

Not a trace left of the rainy morning - we have liftoff!

Look at those autumn colours!

Making a right turn over Märsta

Flying over the town of Strängnäs

This was a fairly uneventful flight. In short-haul economy class on BA, nothing is included, so only the fancy black seats gave it away - otherwise this could just as well have been Norwegian or something like that. I didn't buy any food or drinks, as I would have lounge access at LHR in just a couple of hours.

The anchor-shaped island of Sylt, Germany

Great day for flying!

This safety card had seen better days...

Yours truly hoping for a view of downtown London!

A little cloudy, but so far so good! This is Felixstowe and Ipswich

As we descended towards London, the layer of clouds was kind of thick, but the clouds were a lot higher up today compared to last time, and as we reached downtown, we were given a spectacular view as we made a couple of circles around London in order to align with the runway. To make it even more spectacular, a rainbow appeared just as we got closer to Heathrow. What a view! This trip was already worth it, and I still had a lounge visit and a B767 business class ride to go!